The Match Fit team we're talking about isn't an Academy team. So I can't see how Academy status for the Club would make any difference to them.

And losing one game doesn't mean much. All the NJ teams lose from time to time.

I think the team that wins the EDP league is the one who can claim to be the best as the league is what's most important in most cases. Chelsea is the top team in England this year because they''ve won the Premier League.

I know this leaves Parsippany out of the mix but that's their problem.

I agree that the league is primary source for credibility for state rankings. Parsipanny have almost cheated the system by playing in a league with very little competition, but still getting lots of points. Parsipanny would without a doubt be in the bottom half of the table if they were in EDP with MF, Montco, EB, etc.

Why would MF kids leave? Why did they go there in the first place? To play on an academy team. They are not one any longer so they will leave to go to a different academy team. Being on a top level team was not good enough for them to stay with their prior top teams so why would this be any different.

MF team has never been in the academy league. The kids all wanted to stay a club team. I am sure there are a number of kids that could play on the academy team but none of them wanted that. You are gonna have to find. Another reason for why this team might break up. If anything they may add a few kids from '00 academy team next year.

Correct. They aren't leaving. This team is the former Princeton Black. The core of the team were Matchfit kids two years back. They left to form Princeton Black after a bad experience with team that is the current 2000 Academy team. They came back to play as a club team together, nothing to do with the Academy. Of course, kids will come and go, but not because of MFA losing Academy status.

Match Fit got win over Deptford to play DoL in Semis. While Parsippany plays Stallions tomorrow evening to see who faces East Brunswick. That should be a good game and Stallions could upset but Parsippany is a quality side and should get through

Parsippany 4- stallions 0Talk about a great game- from the d To the offense, parsippany outplayed them. Not to mention a missed penalty- could've been 5-0Stallions had some chances but 4 or 5 great saves prom the parsippany goalie denied stallions.Gonna be hard for eb to keep their title hopes alive with parsippany standing in their way- kudos to them

I'd said a while back that I thought the EB, Parsippany, Gottschee trio were a toss up. Well with Gottschee out of the picture, I still see this the same way for EB and Parsippany. Should be a great game on Saturday and I hope the winner beats MF on Sunday.

parsippany most likely was their toughest state cup game last year but anything happens with penalty shootouts. I wouldn't base predictions for eb vs parsippany on previous results though. it's at a different field, different weather conditions, different players being injured or unavailable. should make a great match though

I saw the Parsippany/Stallions game and, while Parsippany were clearly the better team, I think the score is a little misleading. Stallions should have scored at least 2 and, with the missed PK considered, the game felt like a 5-2 result.

I post this only because when I see a team was shut out I wonder if they ever made any chances for themselves. Stallions did, but then kicked them right at the keeper.

Not much of a difference between 5-2 and 4-0. Kicking the ball right at the keeper just shows Stallions cannot finish or Parsippany keeper was just good. Or both... so no, the score is not very misleading. Parsippany deserved a 3 to 4 goal victory.

I guess we just disagree. Regardless of the final margin, I see a big difference in a game where a team is dominated to the point where they can't muster a single good opportunity from one where they manage to create a number of clear chances that should have been finished. In one case there's disappointment when the chances are squandered while in the other there's just no hope. I'd rather be disappointed than hopeless.

To be clear with regards to the Parsippany/Stallions game. The game was indeed closer than the final score showed. Yes, the Stallions have difficulty finishing however it should be noted that the game was a 0-0 game through the 30th minute. The Stallions coach made a wholesale sub of 5-6 bench players and two goals were scored within minutes of that change. Second half similar with the added fact that the Stallions went to 3 in the back at the same time as the bench sub and then the next two goals were scored. Of course the deep bench is critical at this level so it's not an excuse but possibly some insight into what I saw. Also from what I heard, the Stallions Captain playmaker was injured in their previous game with a broken arm. Obviously hard for them to make an adjustment.

With regard to the comment above- the subs, their captain, 3 in the back- they all may be reasonable excuses but a 4-0 score makes me think that parsippany is a world better than stallions. Stallions could be good but you don't lose 4-0 unless you truly are a worse team.

Popped over to watch St Cup. EB takes a semi 3-0 over Parsipp. A lopsided affair which should have been more if not for 3 hit crossbars and 2 excellent saves by the Crew keeper. EB had very good ball movement and did not allow the physical play of the Crew to affect them. Parsipp had perhaps 2 shots on goal from about 30 yards out which sailed about 10 yards over the top. It was a dominating performance.

Interesting about eb massacre over parsippany:Eb looked liked they had some guest players who used to play for them. Their attack looked liked it came mostly from two kids who I believe left to go to philly union. I don't know if it was those kids or if they are even on union anymore but if they are, that seems unfair. Still no excuse for parsippany.

"No guest players or loan players are allowed, unless they are officially added to a team's valid US Club Soccer roster and their names are imprinted on this roster."

The above is the rule as written for the NJ Cup regarding guest players. As I'm not familiar with requirements of US Club Soccer rosters, can anyone tell me if you can "officially" add a guest to one of these?

Based on the way this rule is written, it would seem that you can. Because if you can't, there'd be no good reason to include the exception that begins with "unless..."

Can players be dual registered with two US Club Soccer members at the same time?Only in limited circumstances, such as between an academy and club, or a league select team, with the permission of the club. In all cases, however, the player’s first commitment should be with his club.

Can players be loaned from one US Club Soccer member to another?Yes, for a certain competition, with the completion of a player loan form that’s available in the Members Area of the website.

It seems it is permissible although I highly doubt, with the risk of an injury, an Academy would allow a double-carding for one of their own players to another organization besides their own Club teams.

A team that just lost to TSF in the goofy State Cup and has other recent losses to "traditional powerhouses" like Northport Cow Harbor and St, Thomas Raiders is the same team that also recently crushed Roncocas Valley 7-0 and and today blasted East Brunswick, right?

Wrong it was 2-0 before the red card... And in regards to you guys thinking DOL cheated, they didn't! they used the same kids in the MSSL Tournament as they did in this state cup. They haven't added any players to their roster.

In the MSSL tournament it was very windy conditions to play in and DOL had two starters injured!!

Also, they haven't lost to Northport Cow Harbor... They had to rescheduled that game due to state cup games. A 1-0 loss may have been a forfeit or a misunderstanding.

I just watched the Red Bulls beat NYFC despite playing down a man for the final hour of the match.

Soccer isn't ice hockey. Losing a player is not a good thing, but it doesn't turn the game into an endless "power play" either. Depending on when a player is sent off, it's typically worth no more that a goal or two (if any) to the opponent.

It certainly isn't reason for an otherwise competitive team to get pasted by a 5-0 score.

So DOL is suddenly at least 3 goals better than EB, who are 3 goals better than Parsippany, who are 4 goals better than Stallions. And this is all happening between teams who we would normally expect to play reasonably competitive matches.

Some of these comments are rediculous. Dol is not 5 goals better than eb who is 3 goals better than parsippany and etc. it shows that teams are still inconsistent and Any given day can be a different score. Look at eb state cup- squeaked by Westfield 2-1 in the quarters before smashing Parsipanny (who was coming off a massive win against stallions) 3-0. Then they lost 5-0 to a team who looked like they should've been in the third bracket at edp cup. What this shows is that all the teams in nj can compete with each other and while the quality may not be as high as it once was(acadamy) there has been no loss of competetetiveness.

That's why the rankings really mean nothing. I don't think many people predicted DoL to win the whole thing but goes to show that any of these top ranked teams in the state can compete well against one another and results can go either way. Any of them could have won NJ Cup and I'm sure this level of competitiveness will remain for a while.

Maybe it would have been a tighter game if the EB player didn't receive a card. He appeared to be their best midfielder. They did have a few chances early in the game but as the game progressed they looked worn down and their back third of the field looked out of sorts. The back line and mid field allowed much penetration inside the 18 and the tender even let one or two go through his hands. Maybe it was a let down after the previous win or they just ran out of steam being 10 men down. But Dol kept the pressure on the entire game so I believe it was a combination of all three.

For 2015-16 Soccer Domain Football Club (SDFC) is creating a new u16 team for competition and showcasing. Since it's inception in 2009, SDFC (www.sdfc.us) has a rich tradition of preparing it's players (and families) for college through development and support on and off the field. We feel that this age group provides an opportunity to follow the path set by the SDFC Gauchos (high school class of 2014) and currently with the SDFC Rangers (high school class of 2017) who are currently ranked number 2 in Region 1 & number 1 in New Jersey, and third Nationally according to Gotsoccer.

We will be hosting our first tryout on Thursday May 21st (8-9:30pm) at Newark Academy, Livingston.

SDFC has identified Gary Adair as the potential coach for this age group. At SDFC, Gary holds the NSCAA Premier Diploma and a USSF National ‘A’ License and currently works with the u18 Force team and the u16 Rangers. The Rangers are currently regarded as a top National level team and have already qualify for the USYS National Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma this summer. Apart from his SDFC work, Gary is the Assistant Head Coach at Manhattan College (Division 1 School - MAAC).

I'm can't agree. In fact, this past weekend's results are a stark departure from what has been an extremely consistent trend for this age group.

Since these boys turned U15, Got Soccer has posted results of 23 different games in which any two of NJ's current top 8 have played against each other. In 19 of these games the margin of victory has been 2 goals or less. In two others there was a 3 goal difference (one of these being EB's win over Pasippany on Saturday). And in the remaining 2 games, the difference was a whopping 5 goals. So tightly played matches have been remarkably consistent for all of these teams and 5 goal slaughters are clear outliers.

BTW the two 5 goal slaughters are particularly curious as a team that DOL effectively drew with the week before they slaughtered EB had been slaughtered by EB the week before that. Sorry, but that's peculiar for sure.

One item no one mentioned is why the NJ Cup allows weeks between games leading up to the final weekend where the competition is less than adequare in most cases. And then have the finalists play back to back days for semis and final. Would like to see both teams well rested, injury free and at their best since they are playing for a championship of the state. Seems the road favors bigger, stronger teams if you can make it to the finals.Thoughts?

I think the point was trying to be made that DOL plays very average soccer during the course of the year and then miraculously tears it up in the state cuo. Tying NJ force 0-0 which eb beat 6-1 a week before and then all of a sudden they beat MF and then demolishes eb.

"And then have the finalists play back to back days for semis and final."

I think this is an interesting point. But I'm not sure it's all that different from the schedules these teams typically play at this time of the year when trying to schedule both State Cup and league games can frequently result in 2 games over a weekend.

What was really crazy was years ago when the NJ Cup played both the semis and the final on the same day. That was plain dumb so I'll give them credit for now allowing the finalists to get a night sleep first.

The one thing I hate about NJ cup finals weekend is the poor field quality. When you cant move the ball on the ground, the games turn into long passes kick and run HS type games, where physically stronger teams will have an edge. Why cant they rent tuckhoe farm or PDA grounds.

Not terrible fields... but conditions could certainly be better considering the "best teams" in the state are playing each other and the poor standard of fields does decreases quality of play and makes it more of a "physicality game". Definitely not as nice to watch, for anyone.

They probably care less about the rankings than others as they don't need them to sell their club to parents.

And, like all teams, I'm sure they have a budget that is set at the beginning of the year and covers their plans. This doesn't seem to include any of the "Big" tournaments (Jeff Cup/Annandale, EDP Cups, Spirit Utd., Delco, etc.) But they've already played 15 times this spring so it's not like they don't schedule games.

I'm guessing that the flight value for the NJYS State Cup is about 8,000. And if that's right, I think either Rooney or TSF would move up to #2 or #3 should they win it. I don't think they can get to #1 with a win here though.

"Dol always comes clutch in the nj cup but they don't win in east tournaments"

"I think the point was trying to be made that DOL plays very average soccer during the course of the year and then miraculously tears it up in the state cuo. Tying NJ force 0-0 which eb beat 6-1 a week before and then all of a sudden they beat MF and then demolishes eb."

Take a look at the familiar Region 1 states. Teams that won State Championships this spring include FSA (CT), Dix Hills (NYE), LDC (PAE), Delaware Rush (DE) and Fewster (MD). These teams are all very familiar to "top flight" NJ teams as they've been squaring off against them in the top flights of top tournaments for years now.

Now lets take a look at the current NJ State Champions. Don't kid yourself folks. Nobody at FSA, Dix Hills, LDC, Delaware Rush or Fewster have ever heard of them.

If you got back and read the recent posts here you'll see the rules for the NJ Cup with regard to guest players. This is allowed under certain circumstances and would definitely allow teams to improve themselves exclusively for State Championship play.

There's been some insinuation here that this may have occurred this spring. No concrete proof(or even claims) though.

So no, "beefing up" isn't cheating...unless one "beefs up" outside of the rules.

"If you got back and read the recent posts here you'll see the rules for the NJ Cup with regard to guest players. This is allowed under certain circumstances and would definitely allow teams to improve themselves exclusively for State Championship play."

ok, I guess if you reaaly want to win state cups and championships and tournaments real bad, then you can 'beef up' for those. but how does that improve the team and teh boys overall during league play? if you're going to beef up for championships, then what message does that give the boys? that they're not good enough for championships on their own, and they need outside help to win? can't be good for morale, character and play development.

"Please note that these predictions are based on the assumption that neither DOL nor Mainland will be late additions to the field."

hahaahahah - good one. i was going to say that application deadlines is over, but yeah i guess if a team drops out before now and the weekend, one of those could jump in.

At least not for the top 5 clubs who can compete at the academy level.

Many of these teams have players who are better than SOME academy players. They simply choose not to go the academy route because they either don't want to be pro soccer players or don't want to lose the experience of playing for their school.

Also, many strive to simply use it at a stepping stone to get into colleges of their choice.

I haven’t seen the level of play at the top clubs deteriorate now that players have reached High School age. It’s true that most club teams train only once a week in the fall and don't play matches during the HS season. But their schedules return to “normal” in the winter and most of the games I’ve seen this spring have been pretty darn good.

As far as players who “don’t want to be pro soccer players” goes, c’mon! Every single one of them would love to play professionally but they are now old enough to understand that this is a virtually impossible task. And I don’t see enough Academy matches to have a reasonable guess as to how many club players are good enough to play there. But I doubt there are too many club players who shun (or ignore) interested Academies to play HS soccer or for any other reason.

But since I'm in a great mood, I'll find a way to agree with both of you!

Top Club players who are committed enough to train 2-3 times each week and travel extensively to play throughout the year are doing so because they love the game and find this life style "fun."

And yes, many of them will go on to play in college, including numerous D1 schools. For many, their ability to play will help them get into schools they would not have been invited to attend otherwise. In addition, some of them will even get some help paying for at least some small portion of their education.

So, along with being “fun,” top level club play is a very serious matter for many.

A little bird told me that there are actually some kids from good teams (top 10-20) in state tht are trying out for sdfc, could that possibly become a new good team? We know it's based in Montclair and there are quite a few good players from Montclair ( galacticos/gunners?) along with other kids from surrounding towns. Possibly a new team to beat in nj.

In an unrelated question: who is mainland and do they actually deserve to be 2 in the state. Beat tsf and PDA over the weekend but are these lucky games or is this a team that can now pose a threat in nj.

In more unrelated news: nobody has spoken about the Potomac memorial tourney that has Arlington in 1 group, tsf and pachuca in another group and cya and dix hills in a third group: while this may not be as competitive as delco, there could be some exciting games down in md this week

Good stuff! My guess is that, at this stage, SDFC would attract only those who aren't satisfied with the amount of playing time they get currently. I mean, there are already 4 other decent options in Northern NJ. So draw your own conclusions from that.

"In an unrelated question: who is mainland..."

Nobody seems to know. Maybe a group of extremely talented players that (somehow) none of us have ever come across over the past 5 or 6 years? Or maybe some new collection of players we have seen over the years and have now all moved to Mainland? I'll admit it. I have no idea.

Another great point! Along with Arlington, Dix Hills and Pachuca, Loudoun, CYA and Manhattan Villa are there as well. All very good teams! But even more so than Delco, the top flight here includes a number of teams one would expect to see in a lower flight. Anyway, it looks to be as good a tournament as Delco to me. Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

I'm afraid I doubt it. And TSF would have to beat Pachuca to get out of their group in Patomac which is another tough assignment.

So I'm not seeing a great Memorial Day weekend for NJ U15's but sincerely hope I'm wrong.

Regarding these two tournaments, the top flight value at Potomac looks to be 10,000 points which higher than Delco (8,500). But they'll both be highly competitive and the winners at both will have had a great weekend.

I was wrong in thinking none of the NJ teams would get out of their groups at Delco and Patomac this weekend as MF managed to do so. They beat FSA (and the two other teams in their group) to reach the semis. And although they lost to Fewster there, they had a decent weekend.

EB lost their opener to BRYC but managed to recover with a couple of wins and finished 2nd in Group A. Gottschee managed to beat up Logan but were no match for Fewster or Montco and finished 3rd in Group C. And Parsippany got 3 draws in a very tough Group D to finish 2nd.

At Patomac, TSF got a draw with Pachuca to fall just short and finish 2nd in their group.

So one Group winner out of 5 and no teams in the finals at either tournament. Not great, but not as bad as I thought it might be.

Parsippany also should have made it through. I saw parts of the match against Penn Fusion and they pretty unjustly conceded a last second penalty after being up the whole game. Just one win would've got them through.

Unlucky, but that's how soccer goes. Overall good performances from NJ teams.

Stallions did win the 2nd bracket 5-4 over penn fusion b team. However, I believe that if stallions had been in the first bracket, the only team they would have beat is Logan and possibly Rage. Remember that abut 3 weeks ago, they lost to parsimony 4-0 and parsippany drew 3 games. Stallions should enjoy the 2000-3000 points that they get for their win but should remember that they had a 1% chance of through the top bracket.

After all the tournaments, I see the rankings as follows:1. DOL2. MAtchfit3. Parsippany4. Mainland5. EB6. PDA7. TSF8. PDA9. Gotschee10. Stallions

I don't think so DOL won their Tournament this week at Ft Dix where they play PDA Rooney and won 1-0 and went on to play SJEB in the finals and won 4-1. Not a highly competitive tournament but with the points they will earn I think it's enough for them to stay 1st in NJ.

Mainland is on the Applied List for the EDP Showcase in June. At this point there are some very good teams on there but not an overwhelming number of them. So it's quite possible that the NJ State Champs could get a top flight entry.

If so, they will likely encounter out-of-state teams like Calverton, Delaware Rush, Dix Hills, Manhatttan Villa, Pachuca and Yonkers along with State rivals MF,EB and TSF.

Should all this come to pass, I think we'll all get a much clearer picture as to how Mainland stacks up against this type of competition.

as for the other "top league" in region 1, the npl looks to be shaping up very nicely. While I had only heard of teams in this league (Princeton and parsippany) the league has some other teams that are looking to make it to nationals (which is where you goif you win). The current points dropped goes 1. Everton-5 2. Parsippany- 6 3.ny Hota- 7 4. Princeton-8. From here, Everton, parsippany and hota have 2 games left while Princeton has 1. Parsippany two games are against hota and Everton which are the hard teams. Hota and evertons other game is against an easy opponent as is Princetons final game. However, it looks like hota has let their foot off the gas going into next weeks game against parsippany. They lost 3-0 to Everton today. Parsippany also got 6 pts this weekend with 2 3-0 victories. Pricton has also played very well beating Everton 2 weeks ago but it might be too little to late as they need a lot of help to win the league. Overall, I will say that a June 17 matchup between parsippany and Everton should be the title decider. Because i think nobody cares about this league, this could be a waste of a post but just wanted let everyone know.

NPL is for teams that know they can't succeed in EDP. Sorry to say it but playing in NPL is just a cheap way to gain points for your gs ranking. Parsipanny is a prime example of this and have been doing it for years.

"NPL is for teams that know they can't succeed in EDP. Sorry to say it but playing in NPL is just a cheap way to gain points for your gs ranking. Parsipanny is a prime example of this and have been doing it for years."

To be fair I believe there are 10-12 teams that currently play NPL within EDP.

"NPL is for teams that know they can't succeed in EDP. Sorry to say it but playing in NPL is just a cheap way to gain points for your gs ranking. Parsipanny is a prime example of this and have been doing it for years."I find this post extremely outrageous. While parsippany may or may not play in npl for gotsoccer points, I have no doubt that they could compete within edp. As of now, no team has beat stallions the way they have and they continuously compete at edp/maps/delco cups. For sure, they may not be first in edp but keep in mind that the first place team in npl will get about what 4 or 5th place will get in edp. And my prediction is that parsippany would be a 4th or 5th place team in edp. I think that until this commenter has actually been to an npl game, they.have no right to berate the league the way they did.

Just to stop the arguing about leagues for a momentan inside source says that the sdfc team next year is a goThe source says that they have a source that says that kids who don't play as much as they would like to on their respective acadamy have decided to drop down to edp or religion 1 premier league in exchange for playing timeFor example, the kid who could be 15th on the team sheet on pda or 16th on njsa could be heading to their local sdfc teamTwo possible advantages could be that they get to play high school and they get to start and play for the majority of the game with clubIf this team does go through it could easily be a top team In the state because a bench acadamy team is still better than any club in this areaThis is more interesting than the league argument because teams are not going to change their league because of a blog post but another competitive team in nj could really spice up how this state stacks up.

The SDFC team is an interesting idea. I don't doubt they may have recruited some high quality players but remain skeptical that they can put together a deep enough roster to field a top notch club team. I could be wrong though.

Regarding the NPL, the GS point argument is simply ignorant. Parsippany got about 1,200 for winning this last year. With that said, the NPL is a different animal as it's a birth year league. So 99's born between January and July can play U15 there this year. And the competition looks to have gotten much stiffer this spring with 4 teams all in contention. Another big difference is that the winner goes on to a National tournament of NPL winners from all across the country which EDP doesn't offer at this point.

I saw Parsippany play at Delco (without the older 99s) and I'd say they'd be very competitive in the current EDP 1st Division Central. They wouldn't be my favorite. But they could beat any team in this league and I'd like their chances to finish in the top 4.

I can confirm that SDFC will be hosting a u16 team for the coming year. We have had a positive response from players looking for a college showcase and prep team that will compliment their high school athletic and academic needs.

Year round training will be based out of Livingston and Montclair. We currently have training opportunities as we have a couple of places available to complete the roster.

The anonymous source is back and has important newsIf what the post above says is true (about playing time) then your best bet to start is as a defender or strikerThe source says that the new team is plentiful wih middies but lacks any fullbacks, center halts or another strikerRumour states that a tsf goalie may leave to join sdfcOther than that the source doesn't know any other actual commits Good luck to everyone trying out

Please feel free to email me if anyone has any specific questions about the team and program. We appreciate the "press" that the blog is providing, but we dont want to get lost in rumors of player commitments or how the team will play.

We are very early in the process of pulling this team together, but we are excited by the opportunity to work with quality players in a quality age group to follow the pathway we have enjoyed thus far with the u16 Rangers.

If the comment above is a player that's embarrasing but if it is a parent, it is disgraceful. I'm leaning toward a player who usually starts and didn't and is resentful at the amount of playing time they got. Patriot red shouldn't have to thank anyone except the coach who either doesn't care anymore or wanted his bench players to improve. Honestly patriot should thank themselves for playing well. And if the last 30 mins were 1-1 that doesn't say anything because not only were the patriot bench players probably in but the starters had played for 50 mins or so and were tired. So a rested eb vs a tired patriot ended 1-1, what do you think would happen if they met for "real." When you look farther up the blog, there is a post which says it's from an eb player. Maybe it's him? And either way, if the coach doesn't care, it's pretty sad and shows us what happens when eb is the top team anymore. And tsf is splitting up, maybe eb will too.

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